Recent experiences cycling at night have made me ponder whether it’s time to start wearing my sunglasses at night.

Sometimes a lone bicyclist riding out in the hinterlands with a 10 or 20 watt headlight doesn’t get a lot of respect.

Motorists may not realize that keeping their high beams on when passing a bicyclist at night is not any different than passing another vehicle with high beams blazing. It creates a hazard.

Actually, the cyclist probably has more difficulty adjusting to a high beam blast than does a motorist, since the cyclist’s eyes have adapted to a much lower wattage lighting the way than the standard high beam headlight of 50 watts.

The poor dilated cyclist’s eyes have been accustomed to their headlight and then, wham, 50 watts or more comes roaring toward him at 35 to 65 mph. These days, it seems that the brighter is better philosophy has become more prevalent. A 100 watt LED or Halo high beam with an 80 watt low beam? That ought to light up the road … and blind whoever is coming toward you.

So, here’s a simple request. The next time you see a small, semi-bright light slowly moving toward you as you speed toward home or elsewhere, don’t forget to